Campus of Michigan State University

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The Abrams Planetarium (bottom left) lies in one of the most urbanized parts of campus.

The campus of Michigan State University is located in East Lansing on the banks of the Red Cedar River, and comprises a contiguous area of 5,200 acres (21 km²), 2,000 acres (8 km²) of which are developed. Built amid virgin forest, the campus opened in 1857 with three buildings, none of which remain. As an agricultural college, the campus was originally located several miles outside of the city of Lansing, but as the population of the college grew, the city of East Lansing developed just north of the area's main avenue.

As the campus of a large university, MSU has many facilities that serve not only the school, but the entire metropolitan area. Public venues on campus include a football stadium, multipurpose arena, ice arena, concert hall, hotel, and golf course. The campus also has its own power plant, laundry service, incinerator, and Amtrak train station.

In terms of infrastructure, MSU's campus has 676 buildings, 27 miles (43 km) of roads, and 100 miles (161 km) of sidewalks. Overall, the university has 21,931,085 square feet (2,037,464.5 m²) of total indoor space. However, the size of the campus, combined with its curving roads and lack of a centralized quadrangle, can make it difficult for newcomers to navigate.^[1]

[edit] History

See also: History of Michigan State University

MSU's campus contains many heavily forested areas. This trail runs behind several residence halls, including Owen Hall, McDonnel Hall, and Holmes Hall.

Before the white settlement of the region, the area that is now East Lansing was a combination of dense virgin oak forest and tamarack swampland. Just north of the Red Cedar River was a clearing in the dense forest. It was in this "oak opening" that the school built its first three buildings in 1856: a multipurpose building called College Hall, a dormitory building later known as "Saints' Rest," and a barn. College Hall contained classrooms, offices, laboratories, a library/museum, and a multifunctional lecture hall/chapel. It was also one of the first buildings in America to be used for the teaching of scientific agriculture.^[2]

Since the college was founded in a sparsely populated area with only a handful of nearby farmhouses, and it was an arduous stagecoach ride from Lansing, the College built four faculty houses in the first year of classes in 1857. One of these original faculty houses, Cowles House, still exists as the President's official residence, though only two walls and part of the foundation remain of the original construction. Ultimately, ten faculty homes were built on campus between 1857 and 1885. Besides Cowles House, one other survived and was moved into the city of East Lansing; the rest were demolished between 1922 and 1948 to make room for the north complex of residence halls and the Student Union.

Michigan State's campus was among the first to serve as a botanical laboratory for its faculty and students and is the site of what is, today, the oldest continuously operated botanical garden in the US.^[3] In December 1879, Professor William J. Beal buried seeds of 23 common plants in 20 jars of sand (to prevent water accumulation) in various locations around campus. At certain fixed intervals, currently every 20 years, a jar is dug up to determine which seeds still germinate after their prolonged periods of unlit isolation. The most recent jar exhumation, April 2000, found only a few specimens surviving to germinate, notably Verbascum blattaria (moth mullein), after 120 years. Five buried jars remain, with the next unearthing scheduled for 2020.

Saints' Rest served as the college's only dormitory for over 20 years. Since it had no official name to distinguish it from other buildings, students invented a variety of nicknames for it including "the hall," "the boarding hall," "old hall," and "the house." The hall burned down during the December 1876 vacation despite the efforts of the Lansing fire department, which made the run from Lansing in 45 minutes. It was only after the hall burned that it acquired the moniker "Saints' Rest," which came from the Puritan devotional "The Saints' Everlasting Rest", written by Richard Baxter in 1650. On June 6, 2005, a team of Michigan State archeology professors and students began excavation on the site. Though they only dug up small portions of the site, they uncovered many artifacts, since the college hastily buried the rubble in 1876 and constructed a new dormitory near the site.^[4][5]

By the turn of the 20th century, College Hall had outlived its usefulness, and its future was in doubt. Because Michigan state government officials had taken the lowest construction bid possible, College Hall suffered from an extraordinary number of construction defects. These included hollow bricks, doors that would not open, a leaky roof (replaced by student labour in the first year), soft pine floorboards that shrank so they did not reach the walls, and even a tree stump embedded in the foundation. The College considered demolishing the historic edifice, but students organized a campaign to save it from the wrecking ball. They convinced the college to convert the hall into a student union. The college went forward with plans to save the structurally unsound building, but it was beyond preservation. The renovation weakened the shoddily-built structure, and in August 1918, the building collapsed while a marching band played "The Star-Spangled Banner" outside the building. No one was injured in the collapse. After the College cleared away the debris, they entertained several proposals to replace College Hall, but in the end they erected a clock tower on the northeast corner of the site. Beaumont Tower became the new architectural symbol of Michigan State College.^[6] Nevertheless, College Hall was not forgotten; to this day it is featured on the great seal of Michigan State University.

President John A. Hannah's push to expand in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in the largest residence hall system in the United States.^[7] 16,000 students live in MSU's 23 undergraduate halls, one graduate hall, and three apartment villages. Though MSU has not built a new resident hall since 1967, it has modernized several of its dormitories. In 2007, MSU will open the Residential College in Arts & Humanities^[8] in a newly-renovated Snyder-Phillips Hall, the location of MSU's first residential college, Justin Morrill College.^[9]

[edit] Areas

There are 676 buildings: 203 for academics, 154 for agriculture, 245 for housing and food service, as well as 74 other buildings. Overall, the university has 21,931,085 square feet (2,037,464.5 m²) of total indoor space.^[10] MSU also owns 44 non-campus properties, totaling 22,000 acres (89 km²) in 28 different counties.^[11]

[edit] North campus

Beaumont Tower marks the site of the old College Hall, and is surrounded on all sides by West Circle Drive.

The oldest part of campus is north of the Red Cedar River and south of Grand River Avenue and Michigan Avenue. Its buildings are an eclectic collection of architectural styles including Collegiate Gothic, Beaux Arts, and Richardsonian Romanesque. The north campus has plentiful trees and curving roads with few straight lines. In the center of the north campus lies the "Sacred Space", which is surrounded on all sides by West Circle Drive. It was in this area that the College erected its first three buildings. None of these three buildings are still standing, but there are still some important historical buildings on and near the Sacred Space. These include Cowles House, the President's official residence, and Beaumont Tower, a carillon clock tower marking the site of College Hall. To the east of the Sacred Space lies Laboratory Row, a group of laboratory buildings constructed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These include Eustace-Cole Hall and Marshall-Adams Hall, America's first freestanding laboratories for horticulture and bacteriology, respectively.^[12]

[edit] South campus

A simplified map of campus.

The campus south of the Red Cedar River consists mostly of buildings built after World War II. Many of them are built in the International and Brutalist styles, with relatively straight roadways and fewer trees than the north campus. South campus also has more surface parking lots, due partly to the sporting and performing arts venues. The "2020 Vision" Master Plan proposes replacing these parking lots with parking ramps and green space,^[13] but these plans will take many years to reach fruition. Notable academic and research buildings on the South Campus include the Cyclotron and the College of Law.

[edit] Service campus and beyond

The majority of Michigan State's academic and residential buildings are north of the Canadian National Railway. South of the CN line are service buildings such as the power plant, laundry services, and the campus incinerator. Nevertheless, there are a growing number of academic buildings south of the railroad. The MSU Clinical Center and the Life Sciences Building are both in this part of campus, as is a nature preserve known as the Baker Woodlot. South still of the university service buildings and the CSX railroad lie thousands of acres of university-owned farmland and agricultural research facilities. The proximity of the farmland to campus helps MSU retain a rural feel in keeping with its roots as an agricultural college that mixes with the more urban atmosphere of East Lansing just a mile north.

[edit] Landmarks

Michigan State is home to two bronze statues, both erected in 2005. On the entrance plaza of the Administration Building that bears his name is the statue of former president John A. Hannah. Downstream on the south bank of the Red Cedar River is the new bronze statue of "The Spartan".^[14] This 2005 replica replaced the original terra cotta statue, which can still be seen in the west concourse of Spartan Stadium.

"The Rock" on January 12, 2006.

Another landmark is the spray painted boulder known as "The Rock". Lying east of Farm Lane just north of the river, it is a popular spot for campus events such as outdoor summer theatre, Greek house tailgating, and candlelight vigils. It was once used by Michigan Agricultural College (forerunner to MSU) students to study mineral contents.

MSU has several botanical gardens, including the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden just across the river from the stadium, the Old Horticulture Gardens next to the building of the same name, the MSU Horticulture Gardens, and the adjoining 4-H Children's Garden.

The university has several buildings for public gatherings and events. Spartan Stadium serves as the university's football stadium. The Breslin Center is a multi-purpose basketball arena. The Munn Ice Arena is used for ice hockey. The MSU Pavilion serves as a venue for agricultural expositions and other types of events. Michigan State has two separate buildings for theatre. The MSU Auditorium/Fairchild Theatre is used for the MSU Theatre Department's shows, concerts, and public speakers. The Auditorium is on Farm Lane and the north bank of the river, in the heart of campus. To the southeast lies the main theatre for the Lansing metropolitan area, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts. The Wharton Center features Broadway plays and other performances, and was the site of one of the U.S. presidential debates in 1992. The university also has its own hotel/convention center, the Kellogg Center.

[edit] Transportation

MSU's campus has a network of sidewalks, bike paths, roads (often with bike lanes) and unpaved trails.^[15] Its transportation network consists of 27 miles (43 km) of roads and 100 miles (161 km) of sidewalks.^[16] The original campus did not contain many sidewalks at all; the designers instead opted to pave desire lines after they appeared in the grass.^{[citation needed]} Common, non-motor vehicle methods of campus navigation used are: Walking, bicycling, rollerblading and skateboarding. Motorscooters and mopeds are also not uncommon. A few skywalks and public underground tunnels link some buildings on campus. The non-motorized Lansing River Trail's eastern trailhead is located on campus, extending west to downtown Lansing and then north towards the airport. The non-motorized River Corridor runs across campus along the south side of the Red Cedar River, and is the primary east-west route for non-motorized traffic on campus.^[17][18]

The main roads that go through MSU's campus are West Circle Drive, East Circle Drive, Shaw Lane, Farm Lane, Wilson Road, Bogue Road, and Red Cedar Road. Passing through crowded areas of campus, these roads receive high volumes of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Another popular mode of transportation is the Capital Area Transportation Authority bus service, which has many routes across campus in addition to regular service outside campus in the Lansing, East Lansing, and Okemos areas. Many routes through campus are designated as "Spartan Service", meaning they only operate during MSU fall and spring semesters.^[19] The MSU-CTC (MSU CATA Transportation Center) is the hub of bus service on campus, and many local destinations both on- and off-campus may be reached from there. Buses are used especially frequently during the winter.

With two railroads crossing campus, MSU students have easy access to rail travel. The East Lansing Amtrak station is located on campus, offering daily direct service to and from Chicago, Kalamazoo, Flint, Port Huron, and several other cities throughout Michigan via the Blue Water line. Cities such as Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids can be reached by transferring onto a different line. The station is also serviced by several Greyhound bus routes.

Two airports are accessible from campus: Lansing Capital City Airport in Lansing and the Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) outside Detroit. Bus service to and from DTW is offered eight times daily by Michigan Flyer.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Kuhn, Madison. (1955). Michigan State: The First Hundred Years, 1855-1955. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0-87013-222-9. 
• Miller, Whitney. (2002). East Lansing: Collegeville Revisited (Images of America). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-2045-4. 
• Stanford, Linda O. (2002). MSU Campus: Buildings, Places, Spaces. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0-87013-631-3. 

[edit] External links

• Official University website
• Gone But Not Forgotten: Campus Buildings That No Longer Exist
• A Brief History of East Lansing: City Neighborhoods and the Campus Park, 1850-1925